Text Messaging

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

News about Text Messaging, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 24, 2015

Jennifer Weiner Op-Ed article describes sending her daughter off to two separate summer camps, one which allowed her to use her phone and one that allowed no electronics; reflects that it was uncomfortable to be bombarded with her daughter's near-constant text messages while at the first camp, but anxiety-provoking when she did not hear from her at all while attending second one. MORE

Jun. 30, 2015

More hotels are trying to accommodate guests by allowing them to text hotel concierges with their needs and requests; effort, which has been capitalized on by start-ups like Zingle, is meant to encourage use of food and beverage services, and to quickly and efficiently address guest grievances. MORE

Jun. 6, 2015

Investigators in Tennessee say Knoxville bus driver James Davenport was texting at time of 2014 crash that killed two girls and teacher's aide; Davenport, who sustained serious injuries in crash, died before conclusion of investigation, apparently of natural causes. MORE

May. 17, 2015

Megan Stielstra Op-Ed article shares her surprise and gratitude over the lessons learned when a series of mistakenly-sent text messages, filled with photos of the family adventures of a young boy, caused her to slow down and reevaluate some of her negative assumptions about herself as a woman and a mother. MORE

Apr. 4, 2015

San Francisco’s police chief Greg Suhr says he has moved to dismiss seven officers who sent or received text messages that spoke of lynching African-Americans and burning crosses. MORE

Apr. 3, 2015

Men are divided as to whether to use emoji symbols in text messaging, or to avoid it completely. MORE

Mar. 25, 2015

Chiara de Blasio, daughter of Mayor Bill de Blasio, is spokeswoman for pilot New York City program allowing teenagers to seek professional guidance and advice via text message; hopes that her personal experience with depression and drug and alcohol abuse will help remove stigma of seeking help. MORE

Mar. 1, 2015

Symbols and punctuation say more in texting era than actual words. MORE

Feb. 15, 2015

Op-Ed article by author Anthony DePalma describes how woman responsible for fatal car accident that resulted in his brother's death was not criminally indicted due to unreasonable standard of evidence for determining whether her texting led to crash; suggests California investigation into accident involving Bruce Jenner may run into similar issues. MORE

Jan. 9, 2015

Increasingly sophisticated algorithms found on smartphone autocorrect features, which use an individual user's language to guess phrases and word patterns, are leading many to worry that so-called 'autofails,' or accidental autocorrection, reveals something about themselves. MORE

Dec. 25, 2014

Nick Bilton Disruptions column notes his 2015 New Year's resolution is to stop texting while walking. MORE

Dec. 20, 2014

T-Mobile agrees to pay at least $90 million in fines to settle charges that it unlawfully billed customers for unwanted premium text messages, practice known as cramming; is third major mobile phone carrier, along with AT& T and Sprint, to make deal with regulators. MORE

Nov. 20, 2014

Nov. 15, 2014

Study released by National Bureau of Economic Research shows that mobile technology may offer cheap and effective solution to language gaps between children of affluent parents and those from low-income families; research found that preschoolers whose parents received text messages with tips on reading to their children performed better on literacy tests. MORE

Sep. 29, 2014

Open federal contract to route phone calls and text messages in United States has prompted an unusual lobbying battle; winning company could replace Neustar as entity that essentially acts as air traffic controller for nation's phone system; Federal Communications Commission has recommended Swedish-based company Ericsson, but intelligence officials say foreign entity could put nation's surveillance secrets at risk. MORE

Sep. 14, 2014

Scott Tibbitts has developed a device that can block incoming and outgoing texts and to prevent phone calls from reaching a driver. MORE

Sep. 14, 2014

Excerpt from Matt Richtel book A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention, relates story of Reggie Shaw, who has undertaken campaign against automotive texting following 2006 accident in which he caused the death of two motorists. MORE

Aug. 31, 2014

Typing awareness indicator, shown on many smartphones, is anxiety provoking for many people. MORE

Aug. 28, 2014

New Jersey legislative committee investigating September 2013 lane closings at George Washington Bridge subpoenaes AT&T in effort to uncover text messages exchanged between Gov Chris Christie and top aide Regina Egea as his administration sought to contain fallout from ensuing scandal. MORE

Jul. 24, 2014

Personal Tech Q&A on saving data from laptop that will not boot up properly following a spill; starting a blog; Tip of the Week on seeing time stamps of individual messages in the iOS Messages app. MORE

Jun. 15, 2014

Teddy Wayne Future Tense column discusses Generation Y's obsession with text messaging; says concept of leaving voice mail is nearly obsolete and notes that data collected by Vonage and Pew confirm that teenagers are texting more and calling far less than they used to. MORE

May. 26, 2014

Sticker-based messaging apps like Line and WeChat are jostling for control of rapidly growing mobile messaging business; start-ups are racing to define how younger generation, one that has increasingly moved away from traditional text messaging, as well as Facebook and Twitter, will message on the go. MORE

Feb. 19, 2014

The acquisition of WhatsApp is Facebook’s largest by far, and marks a new height in the frenzy to acquire popular technology start-ups. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Seven people testify at the bail hearing for Curtis J Reeves Jr, retired Tampa police captain who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Chad Oulson; two got into an argument after Oulson began texting during movie preview at a Florida theater. MORE

Feb. 5, 2014

Crisis groups have begun implementing text-messaging services as an alternative way to provide emergency services and counseling, especially in the case of teenagers; experts have found that texting gives teenagers sense of security and privacy as they seek help for depression, suicide, sexual abuse and other issues; digital system offers a number of logistical advantages to service providers as well. MORE

Feb. 5, 2014

Lawrence Scott, New York City Education Department detective who was checking into accusations of misconduct by teacher Natalya Sokolson Gordon in Coney Island, Brooklyn, instead engaged in a sexually explicit phone relationship with her; Scott resigned and it has been recommended that Gordon be fired. MORE

Jan. 5, 2014

Many people who work at home may go days without speaking a word aloud, conducting all professional and personal interactions by email, text or social media; trend appears to be part of continuing decline of telephone culture. MORE

Dec. 8, 2013

David Segal The Haggler column observes that in switching from an Apple to an Android phone, text messages do not necessarily follow suit. MORE

Dec. 3, 2013

Editorial praises success of New York State's anti-texting squad, group of highway troopers who have assigned thousands of tickets in just two months to drivers who text at the wheel; cites statistics showing that distracted driving killed more than 3,000 people in 2012. MORE

Oct. 8, 2013

Sep. 29, 2013

College students generally prefer texting over e-mail, which they see as slow and inefficient; professors, who often require e-mail as primary source of communication, are having to get creative to keep students in touch. MORE

Aug. 18, 2013

The increasing use of emoji icons can be baffling to American adults who, whether they realize it or not, are taking their social cues from Japanese teenagers. MORE

Aug. 15, 2013

Editorial notes that German filmmaker Werner Herzog has directed 35-minute documentary From One Second to the Next, which focuses on perils of texting while driving; contends project, which was financed by America's four largest wireless carriers, sets a high standard for how corporations can educate the public. MORE

Aug. 15, 2013

Personal Tech Q&A on watching live TV on the go with mobile devices, spotting fraud sent via text messages, and finding additional characters on mobile device keyboards. MORE

Aug. 15, 2013

Gadgetwise blog; Brollytime's Brolly umbrella has a handle with an ergonomic, four-finger grip that frees thumb to text message. MORE

Aug. 9, 2013

A documentary, called “From One Second to The Next,” profiles a boy who was paralyzed after being struck by a driver who was texting. MORE

Jul. 31, 2013

Op-Ed article by author Susan Jacoby asserts that women involved in sexting scandal engulfing New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner are equal participants, not victims, in the arid world of virtual sex. MORE

Jun. 28, 2013

A growing number of people who walk while talking or texting on a cellphone are ending up in the emergency room. MORE

Apr. 8, 2013

Editorial praises appeals court that found school officials in Kentucky violated student's rights when they read his text messages without reasonable suspicion. MORE

Mar. 15, 2013

Nearly 70 percent of Americans ages 18 to 64 said they had chatted on their phones while driving in the past 30 days, far more than drivers in seven European countries. MORE

Mar. 10, 2013

Think of how long it takes to access your voice mail and listen to one of those long-winded messages. In text messages, you don’t have to declare who you are, or even say hello. MORE

Mar. 10, 2013

Jenna Wortham Bits column observes that mobile phone features like emoji, emoticons and GIFs have not been big businesses in the United States, but several new American companies are trying to change that; notes that Path and MessageMe have released souped-up versions of emoji and emoticons called 'stickers' that can be inserted into text messages. MORE

Mar. 8, 2013

Federal Trade Commission files eight lawsuits in federal courts around the country against companies it accuses of ordering or engineering the sending of millions of spam text messages; FTC notes that such scams are particularly dangerous because users have come to trust messages received on phones. MORE

Mar. 1, 2013

Republican-controlled House committee in Oklahoma derails bill to ban texting while driving, citing concerns that it would be hard to enforce and would jeopardize personal freedoms. MORE

Feb. 10, 2013

Dec. 5, 2012

Smartphone apps that use the Internet to send free text messages are forcing wireless providers to change pricing models and could cost them tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue; shift is opening opportunities for big companies like Facebook and Apple, as well as smaller start-ups, which are making aggressive grabs for the market. MORE

Nov. 11, 2012

App City column notes that tech-savvy volunteers have been developing networks that can quickly link helpers to those in need, spurred by government-alert texting systems during Hurricane Sandy. MORE

Oct. 28, 2012

Texting and instant messaging make it easier to navigate social lives, but they also make it easier for people to cancel plans at the last minute without advance notice or apology, ignoring time-honored offline rules of etiquette MORE

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July 21, 2015, Tuesday

The former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay will not face action over discriminatory text messages because he had a reasonable expectation that they would remain private, the FA announced on Thursday.

Multimedia

During Hong Kong's hottest summer on record, seven stories crisscross, magically intertwining and affecting each other: A chauffeur and a foot masseuse romance through text messages, unaware of each others identities; an innocent factory girl asks her admirer to stand outside in the heat for 100 days to prove his love; a sushi chef prepares the perfect meal so that the food critic he loves will stay with him forever; a blinded photographer must locate the beautiful model he insulted; an old man desperately searches for an antique light bulb for the shrine of his late wife and each night an air conditioner repairman challenges a mystery girl to a road race. Intense temperature sparks intense emotions as the fates of these couples are tested when a blackout spreads across Hong Kong and the city falls into chaos.

Global action star Liam Neeson stars in Non-Stop, a suspense thriller played out at 40,000 feet in the air. During a transatlantic flight from New York City to London, U.S. Air Marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a series of cryptic text messages